A nativity scene placed in Eureka Springs’ Basin Spring Park by the Great Passion Play will remain in place, the play’s executive director announced Monday afternoon, after city officials requested last week that it be removed.
Randall Christy, executive director of the Great Passion Play, posted a live video to Facebook on the afternoon of Friday, Dec. 2, saying that Eureka Springs mayor Butch Berry and city attorney Forrest Jacobi had contacted his office and “demanded” that the nativity scene be removed. Berry said in an email to city council members that he asked for the removal of the statue after a citizen threatened to file a lawsuit.
On Monday afternoon, Christy said in another Facebook post that Berry had notified him in writing that he had changed his mind and would not require the statue to be removed.
Neither Berry nor Jacobi replied to a request for comment but the Eureka Springs Chamber of Commerce Facebook page posted a “note from the Mayor” on Monday afternoon.
“Today the city is going to issue a permit for the Nativity scene to remain, along with other secular displays, in the bandshell in Basin Spring Park in Eureka Springs,” the note says. “The City of Eureka Springs is following its philosophy of being inclusive of all people and all beliefs. We appreciate the emails and phone calls received from all over the country. And we wish everyone peace and goodwill toward all during this holiday season.
“Thank you Butch Berry” Christy said by phone Tuesday morning that the Great Passion Play would stand with the city to defend against a potential lawsuit.
“We have made a vow that if there is a lawsuit filed by the citizens or others to try to remove it, that we will stand up with the city,” he said.
In his email to city council members, Berry said he had requested that the nativity scene be removed after Eureka Springs resident David Helms threatened to file a lawsuit. Helms could not be reached for comment.
Christy said his Facebook video had received thousands of views, shares and comments.
“I think it’s great that the people really rallied behind the nativity scene as being part of Christmas,” he said. “It’s just mystifying to me how many people there are that pretend that Christmas has nothing to do with Jesus. I can’t figure that out. It’s a national holiday that recognizes the birth of Jesus Christ. The person doesn’t have to worship Him or believe in Him either to acknowledge that He was, in fact, born. In Eureka Springs, the winter tourism is the Christmas season. To try to force the nativity out of it is actually religious discrimination.”
The nativity scene originally was erected in Basin Spring Park by the Beta Sigma Phi sorority in 1950, Christy said. Because the sorority members are getting older, Christy said the Great Passion Play agreed to take responsibility for erecting the nativity scene in 2021.
“(It’s) just a community service that we provide,” Christy said. “We take it upon, as a ministry and as part of our community service to put this up every year. And it’s a beautiful nativity scene.” Christy said the nativity scene was erected at the entrance to the Great Passion Play in 2021, but sorority members requested that it be erected in Basin Spring Park this year.
In his Dec. 2 email to council members, Berry writes that he consulted with Jacobi and an Arkansas Municipal League attorney before requesting the removal of the nativity scene. Berry writes that Jacobi believed the nativity scene would “fall under” the U.S. Supreme Court’s ruling in ACLU vs.
Allegheny County.
In the 1989 case, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that a crèche with the words “Gloria in Excelsis Deo” (Glory to God in the highest) displayed on the grand staircase of the Allegheny, Pa., county courthouse violated the First Amendment’s Establishment Clause.
The Establishment Clause prohibits the government from making any law “respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof.”
